“We did so many difficult things this year that we got overconfident,” Hastings said. “Our big obsession for the year was streaming, the idea that ‘let’s not die with DVDs.’”

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings’ comments came during his appearance at a UBS Media conference in New York on Tuesday. He was referring to his company’s missteps in 2011, including separating and rebranding its DVD delivery and streaming services (which Netflix ultimately didn’t do). Some interesting insights about the present and future of Netflix’s business from Hastings, who by any measure has had a pretty tough year.